Perhaps the greatest plight of a musician or artist is getting their music heard. There is only so much marketing, advertising, and promo you can do besides exhausting those options. There are other things you can do on the creative spectrum outside of solely making music. Here are some of them…
Video Content Creator
Anyone who has a smartphone holds more power and tools in their hand than filmmakers had 40 years ago. Put yourself into some good lighting, check the angles, look presentable, and press record.
From there you can create daily vlogs, intimate breakdowns of your music, or even speak about some of your favorite songs. If you feel so inclined you can do stripped-down versions of your tracks or even do some cover songs.
Take these clips and upload them to YouTube, Facebook, IG, or TikTok, and see what happens. If it’s interesting, amazing, or both, people will share it!
Podcasting
This next endeavor is a bit more involved but podcasting is all the rage these days. In fact, we are pretty inundated with them but ones that do well find unique things to talk about. Find a topic you are an expert on, grab a co-host, or go about it solo. Just make sure it’s interesting.
You need a decent-quality microphone, a recording program, and quiet space. When you’re done pick a place to store it – Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, etc or join one of the many podcast aggregators that send it out to everything.
Blogging
Blogging kind of falls into the last two but involves you writing instead of creating visual or audio content. Blogging is a great way for writers to get their thoughts out in digestible paragraphs. This especially works if you don’t speak well or have the funds to create content you are happy with.
Having a blog costs you zero dollars unless you want to own the domain. There are plenty of blogging sites such as WordPress or Blogger that have easy-to-use interfaces that make the whole experience fun.
So what do you write about? You can write about tour experiences, difficulties in the studio, your creative process, music that inspires you, or even talk about something unrelated altogether like your favorite recipes. Better yet…you can turn these blogs into videos too!
Curation
Curation is one of the biggest driving forces in today’s media. Websites curate content to post or sort through hundreds of music submissions to give you the best of the best. Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora have wildly popular playlists with millions of followers. These lists are created by companies or everyday people with good taste.
If you want to make a playlist of songs you work out to, do it! If you have songs to drive to, post them up! You’ll never know how your musical taste may push people’s love of music.
Your ability to be a “digital DJ” can land you opportunities as an influencer or face of a brand.
Photography/Videography
The amount of former musicians that have become photographers is insane. If music tells a story with words, pictures tell a story without them. It’s a challenge to be able to do this but many transition to photography becoming their full-time job when/if the music thing doesn’t work.
Concert photography would be a no-brainer. As a musician, you know the best spots to stand on the floor and you know what shot to focus on. Is it the fingers of a guitarist during a ripping solo or the exasperated look of a drummer after the end of an intense song? Whatever it is, all you need is a camera, point, and go.
If you do videography, you can shoot music videos, and commercials, or help others create content. You may even venture into script writing, lighting, editing, or any of the other jobs associated.
People in this industry get the most bang for their buck doing weddings. Shooting one wedding could net a photographer/videographer a paycheck that’ll last them a month. Now do one wedding a week, and that’s a game changer.
Alright, so those are 5 things you can do outside of creating music that still keeps you within the creative space. In more instances than not, if you master one or more of these, it’ll help your brand as an artist as well.
If you are interested in more practical advice on how to survive and thrive as an indie creative, check out Survival of the Artists: Tips & Strategies to Help Indies Succeed here.
